Saturday, October 31, 2009

This recipe was passed on to me from my Aunt Liz. I've been making it for a few years now and it's really good. We made this recipe last weekend and I'm going to make a few more batches this weekend to freeze because I love it.

Friday, October 30, 2009

So I’ve been completely lazy at updating my blog lately… I know… I have a bunch of different recipes to post up here, but just haven’t gotten around to it.

I made this cheesecake for last week’s girl night and it was pretty good. Rich, but good (don’t the two usually go hand in hand?). I find the quantities required in the recipe a bit much. My cheesecake pan was overflowing, even though I had put some of the mixture into two individual cheesecake pans. So if you’ve got the patience, you may want to make a smaller version of the recipe. Or you can do as I did and make some little individual portions. In any case, be sure to make this when you have lots of people around to eat it, as it is HUGE. Though it freezes well. I didn't bother decorating it, but I'm sure it would have been much prettier if I had (though I'm sure it tasted just the same).

This recipe comes from the cookbook 125 Best Cheesecake Recipes, which is a great cookbook. I've only made about 4 or 5 of the cheesecakes in it so far, over the years, but they've all been fantastic.

2.Filling: In a large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese, sour cream and sugar on medium-high speech for 5 minutes.Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.Mix in flour, pumpkin, vanilla, lemon juice, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.Pour batter over frozen crust.Bake in preheated oven at 350oF for 65 to 75 minutes or until the top is light brown and the centre has a slight jiggle to it.Cool on a rack for 2 hours.Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours before decorating with whipped cream topping or serving.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

My Aunt sent me this recipe, which she made last fall and said was highly recommended. I recently heard that Alanna was dying to get a copy of this recipe, so I figured I'd post it up now. It is taken from the Canadian Living Test Kitchen.

Monday, October 5, 2009

My French husband spoiled me by making these crepes for dinner last night. I haven’t been feeling well lately and he was nice enough to make a stash of these to last a few nights so that I won’t have to cook. These are rich, so you won’t want to eat them every single day. But delish…

French recipes give quantities in grams rather than cups and I don’t have the equivalents. Though I’m sure you can find them on-line if you don’t have a food scale. The recipes have been translated and adapted from the Petit Larousse de la Cuisine.

Crepe batter

This batter is for savory, rather than sweet crepes.

100g of white flour (we’ve tried the recipe with whole-wheat and it doesn’t turn out well, so this is one of the recipes where I’ve conceded and use white flour)

2 eggs1 tsp. butter300 mL milkpinch of salt

1.Beat the eggs and flour together with a whisk until you obtain a smooth batter.Mix in milk with the whisk.

2.Melt the butter in the microwave and mix into batter.

3.Let the batter sit for 2 hours at room temperature.

Making the crepes themselves is a bit of an art and not one that I’ve ever tackled myself. Though my husband makes it look quite easy. After searching for a good crepe pan over here for years, my husband is now quite satisfied with the Starfrit pan, which he finds makes crepe making painless.

The pan must be hot before pouring batter into it. Using less than a full ladle of batter, pour just enough batter into a crepe pan and quickly turn the pan around to spread the batter evenly across the pan. If you have a good quality pan, such as the one suggested above, you won’t need to add additional butter to cook the crepes. However, if your crepes stick, you may want to add a bit of melted butter to the pan prior to pouring the batter in.

Once you can move the crepe on the pan by shaking it a bit, the crepe is ready to be flipped. Use a spatula or flipper to help flip the pancake (though my husband likes to just flip them in the air, a bit like pizza-makers do. But I don’t, suggest you try that the first time you make this recipe!). You can also buy an adapted tool made specifically to flip crepes, in specialty kitchen stores, such as Ares. Then cook for approximately one minute, until the crepe is cooked on both sides. Remove to a plate to cool. You can pile one crepe on top of the next as they are cooked.

Béchamel Sauce

30g butter30g white flour300mL milk100mL chicken broth

1.Melt butter in a small heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat without letting it brown.Gradually add the flour, stirring continually with a whisk as it is added.Continue cooking for approximately 4 minutes.

2.Heat milk in the microwave.Pour milk into the pan and mix together until fully mixed and you obtain a thick consistency.

1.Mix chicken and mushroom into béchamel sauce. Spoon mixture evenly over 6 or 7 crepes. Roll each crepe and place in a baking dish. You can optionally sprinkle the crepes with a bit of grated cheese before placing them in the oven to heat for 15 minutes (if the sauce is still hot) at 300oF. These will keep well in the fridge, likely freeze well and are good reheated.

As a variation, you can use cubed or sliced ham instead of the chicken.

About Me

Though I work as a Speech-Language Pathologist, I sometimes feel that I should have opened a catering business. Or a business that sells prepared healthy food to on-the-go families. Cooking is one of my favourite hobbies. Fortunately, so is working out, which I suppose has thankfully helped moderate my love of food!